Jess Eker
Senior Vice President, Global Life Sciences Practice, TransPerfect
Jess is an achievement-obsessed senior executive and unwavering optimist who channels her passion, grit, and discipline into her two favorite roles: expanding her clients’ business globally and developing her team members into productive leaders. She is known among her colleagues as someone who consistently delivers excellence and exceeds goals. In 2010, she was awarded, National VP of Sales of the Year, for the Stevie Award for Sales and Customer Service for producing record sales numbers in TransPerfect’s 25-year history.
Jess earned her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Business from Georgetown University and began her career at TransPerfect in 2003. Currently, she is Senior Vice President, Global Life Sciences Practice. In her role, she oversees a $200 million book of business and runs a global team of approximately 160 salespeople. She has helped the company establish worldwide partnerships with an array of pharmaceutical leaders including: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Daiichi Sankyo, and Merck, and is responsible for the development of TransPerfect’s Linguistic Validation practice.
Outside of work, Jess is deeply engaged in her community. She is currently the Co-Chair of Go Red for Women – a movement within the American Heart Association that raises awareness around women and heart disease. She is also deeply passionate about empowering women to accelerate their professional advancement and does so through her involvement with Advancing Women Executives (AWE). Her work with AWE has provided her the foundation and principles to create and serve as Executive Sponsor for TransPerfect Working Women, a group dedicated to helping the company’s women learn, grow, and achieve professional success.
This quadrilingual loves to see the world – she has traveled to 107 countries and aspires to see them all. A food and drink enthusiast, Jess can be found tasting and drinking her way through New York’s hottest new restaurants and wine bars. She is also an advocate for self-care and commits to making time for the gym 360 days a year.
Her greatest joy is raising her baby and two twin toddlers. She regularly volunteers in her twins’ Pre-K classes and has found that by giving back to the school and community she is able to interweave her professional and personal life in a way that gives her much balance.